State Leaders Question Rush For Inland Port

Port Of Palm Beach To Choose Site Next Month

Top state officials on Monday questioned the push to pick the site for an inland port that Palm Beach County communities are counting on to ease decades of crushing unemployment.

The Port of Palm Beach next month is set to choose from four sites vying to become home to an industrial distribution center that would link coastal ports to rail and truck routes nationwide - potentially generating thousands of jobs for the inland community that lands the prize.

On Monday, the heads of the state Department of Environmental Protection as well as the Department of Transportation held a meeting in Clewiston to discuss their concerns about the hurdles still facing the inland port project.

Questions about how to address the infrastructure needs of moving cargo from the coast to the inland storage and distribution center have yet to be resolved; as well as concerns that the industrial development could get in the way of Everglades restoration, said Michael Sole, secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

"We are in a tenuous position," Sole said. "We all need to take a step back."

Palm Beach County officials want their hometown port to choose western farmland along U.S. 27 owned by sugar producer Florida Crystals. That could provide much needed jobs for South Bay, Pahokee and Belle Glade where unemployment hovers near 40 percent.

Competing communities struggling with their own unemployment want the state to step in to play a larger role in determining which location best fits regional economic needs.

The inland port vote planned for Dec. 17 also comes before the results of a study expected in February about state freight flows. Challenges could arise if the Port of Palm Beach picks a site that doesn't match up with the results of the study, said Stephanie Kopelousos, secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation.

Sole and Kopelousos acknowledged that the Port of Palm Beach started the inland port push and gets to pick the site. But they said regional concerns must be addressed for the project to succeed.

Kopelousos said she "wouldn't be shocked" if at least one of the four competing sites asked for a delay of the Dec. 17 vote to try to address more of the concerns about the project.

"I don't think there's an exact roadmap," Kopelousos said about the selection process. "This process isn't going to end on Dec. 17."

Last month, with state concerns growing about the project, the Port of Palm Beach board delayed a site selection vote until December.

The Port of Palm Beach is consulting with the Port of Miami and Port Everglades in Broward County on the potential inland port locations, but so far has no plans to cede control of the project it started about five years ago.

"The decision will be made by the [Port of Palm Beach] board," Port of Palm Beach Executive Director Manuel Almira told state officials on Monday.

Land owned by sugar producer Florida Crystals along U.S. 27 in western Palm Beach County is competing against two sites near Clewiston and another site west of Port St. Lucie.

Palm Beach County community leaders rallied on Friday in support of the port board going with the Florida Crystals site that keeps the new jobs closer to South Bay, Belle Glade and Pahokee.

On Monday, Clewiston backers used the meeting to push their bid to land the industrial port in Hendry County as a possible alternative to agricultural jobs that continue to decline.

Gov. Charlie Crist's proposed half-billion-dollar deal to buy 73,000 acres from Clewiston-based U.S. Sugar Corp. for Everglades restoration is putting pressure on state officials to attract businesses there to compensate for agricultural jobs that could be lost as sugar production gives way to environmental projects.

"Would the inland port be a huge answer to prayer? Yes," Clewiston Mayor Mali Chamness said before Monday's meeting with state officials. "Now they are here, they can see it from our point of view."